Earlier kidnapped deputy head of Orienbank dead, body not found yet - Tajik Prosecutor General's Office
DUSHANBE. July 7 (Interfax) - Shukhrat Ismatulloyev, deputy head of Orienbank, who was kidnapped by a group of criminals, has been killed and several abductors have been detained, the Tajik Prosecutor General's Office said.
"The country's law enforcement agencies established as a result of operational search events that Dilshod Khusinovich Saidmurodov, a citizen of the Republic of Tajikistan, being head of an organized criminal group that abducted Shukhrat Abdulgaforovich Ismatulloyev, first deputy chairman of Orienbank, planned this crime in March 2022 and created an armed organized criminal group composed of more than 10 people for that purpose," the report said.
According to the supervisory agency, the criminals abducted Ismatulloyev in the evening of June 23 and took him to the village council in Chorbog, Varzob district.
"They tortured Ismattulloyev using physical force, electric shockers, an automatic fan and other means in a house in this village and later killed him," the Prosecutor General's Office said.
Members of the organized criminal group later dumped Ismatulloyev's body and a Hyundai Sonata into the Zarafshan river on the 130th kilometer of the Dushanbe-Chanak motorway to hide the evidence of the crime.
On the same day, two members of the group fled to Russia, one went to Turkey, and another person, Rustam Ashurov, went to Moldova through Turkey.
When Ashurov crossed the state border of Moldova on June 30, fearing arrest and extradition to Tajikistan, he grabbed a pistol from a law enforcement official of the Chisinau airport, killed two people and two several citizens hostage. He was wounded in an anti-terrorist operation and died of wounds on July 3.
"Five members of the organized criminal group were detained in connection with this criminal case. Relevant measures are being taken in collaboration with the law enforcement agencies to detain and prosecute the other criminals," the Tajik Prosecutor General's Office said in a report. The search for Ismatulloyev's body still continues.